Christian Slater is Edward Albright/Henry Spivey in NBC’s new My Own Worst Enemy.

NBC Universal / Paul Drinkwater

This season’s most heavily promoted show — thank you, NBC Olympics — is My Own Worst Enemy, which could also describe NBC’s programming department. Except in this case.

The series premieres tonight (10, Ch. 7, 10) and here’s the surprise: It’s not bad. It’s not particularly wonderful, but it’s watchable, decent escapism, and NBC has done much worse (see: Knight Rider).

Worst Enemy is the tale of a super spy named Edward and his alter ego, named Henry. Both are played by Christian Slater, but you already know that if you saw more than a few seconds of the Olympic Games this August. Slater promos got more screen time than Michael Phelps.

The show is better than the promos and seems to have potential to improve once all the introductions and setups are handled. Possibly. The cast is good, including Slater being fairly likeable, Alfre Woodard as his spy boss, and, though I never thought I’d write this, an intriguing friend in Mike O’Malley of Yes, Dear. There. I said it. Mike O’Malley’s pretty good here.

Anyway, Edward is a top asset — spies are now all “assets,” thanks to the Bourne movies — but he only exists when he’s working. Then his super-duper, double-secret spy agency puts that personality to sleep and awakens good ol’ Henry, an everyday guy with a job, a wife and two kids. Edward knows about Henry, but Henry knows nothing.

Although Woodard gives us some mumbo jumbo about medial temporal lobes or something, no one ever explains why this is necessary. Haven’t they heard of being covert? Didn’t they see True Lies?

Either way, despite the fairly cliché chitchat around the Henry household, Slater is more interesting when he’s Henry. Edward is sort of James Bond lite, soul-less and seemingly impervious. Henry is scrambling just in his normal life, and even more when the wall between the two personalities breaks down.

It all unfolds without any great “wow” moments, but after a slow and predictable opening scene with spy guy Edward, it’s relatively painless and sometimes even fun.

It also appears that NBC and the producers will let the episodes be self-contained, and they’re not loading up on the unending back stories, cliff-hangers and ridiculous twists in logic that can drive viewers nuts (see: Heroes).